AUBURN — Deshaun Davis wasn’t frustrated. A lot of people around him certainly were. He was tagged in a lot of posts on Twitter. His uncle even sent him a link to a petition that someone had started.

“I had nothing to do with that at all,” Davis made clear on Friday.

But while he wasn’t frustrated, he was a little surprised. Auburn teammates Dontavious Russell and Jarrett Stidham had received their invitations to the Reese’s Senior Bowl, as did 12 other linebackers from across the country.

Davis — a first-team All-SEC selection who ranked fifth in the SEC with 107 tackles and sixth with 14 tackles for loss — did not.

“I looked at the linebackers who were already chosen and guys who had already accepted and — it was kind of a slap in the face, honestly,” Davis said. The fact that he’s from the Mobile area and grew up going to the game made it sting even worse.

As it turns out, it may have all been a ploy. On Thursday, Gus Malzahn’s phone rang during a team meeting. He set it down on a table, put it on speaker and called Davis to the front of the room.

The senior didn’t have any idea what was going on until he saw the call was from Jim Nagy, the executive director of the Senior Bowl. They had been “holding back a couple of weeks to do something special for our Mobile native and Vigor HS alum,” Nagy tweeted, which included having NFL Hall of Famer Robert Brazile, also a Vigor High alum, on the line.

“I mean, that’s a dream come true,” Davis said. “Coming up in the area, you always going to the game, you’re seeing guys that you know around your neighborhoods playing in the game and stuff like that, how the schools have a special moment for them, the city has a special moment for them. Going off to college, that’s something you want to do: finish your career in front of the people that you started it with.

“It was kind of overwhelming, but I was in front of my teammates, so I couldn’t be too emotional. I’m just ecstatic about the opportunity, just going to play in front of my city, competing against the best talent in college football, and I’m excited to go down and do that.”

The Senior Bowl has always been important to Davis and his family, the same way it is for a lot of people where he’s from. Prichard, where he grew up, is a Mobile suburb just eight miles north of Ladd-Peebles Stadium.

Davis estimates he’s been to the game five or six times in his life, including when Sammie Coates played in 2014 and when Tre’ Williams suited up last year. His family holds a tailgate before the game, and this year, he said, “it’s going to be extremely big.”

As big as the game is for Davis from a personal standpoint, it’s also huge from a professional one. Davis’ rise from a three-star senior linebacker who missed his senior season of high school with a torn ACL to little-used reserve to starting middle linebacker to team captain and MVP has been an incredible story, but as a 5-foot-11 inside linebacker without top-end speed, he’s not viewed as much of an NFL prospect.

Walter Football doesn’t rank Davis anywhere among its top 24 inside linebackers in the 2019 NFL Draft class. When Nagy saw Davis play this season, he consistently said that he “lacks ideal measurables” that the NFL is looking for.

But Nagy also said Davis has “maybe the best football IQ of any defensive player in the draft.” Auburn’s senior leader will get a chance to show that off in front of coaches, scouts and front-office personnel from all 32 NFL teams in his hometown on Jan. 26.

"You don't even have to finish the question. Most definitely," Davis said when asked if he had something to prove. “I know it. ‘He's a 5-11 linebacker.’ Yeah, OK. ‘He doesn't run a 4.3.’ OK.

"I know these guys are looking for the 6-3 guys with this sort of wingspan and this and that. I'm a football player. When I step on the field, you can tell that I'm a football player, so I think it'll be good for me to go out and showcase my talents in front of the scouts. There won't be any pressure on me at all because it's football, and I've got home field advantage. I'm going to be real comfortable, but I'm excited to do something."